What Al Jazeera Won’t Tell You: The ‘Dead Journalists’ List Omits Those Killed by Hamas
The Myth of 231: Al Jazeera’s List of ‘Dead Journalists’ Falls Apart Under Basic Scrutiny
It’s become almost routine by now: Propaganda to claim “Israel targets journalists,” yesterday another list circulated by Al-Jazeera claiming 231 “journalists killed” in Gaza, since October 7th, 2023. But like the previous lists, it quickly falls apart under the most basic scrutiny.
Let’s remember where we left off with the list released in December 2023: after conducting a careful, methodical review, independent researchers and analysts found that at least 50% of those named had proven ties to terror organizations, primarily Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Another 27% weren’t journalists at all—they were either civilians misidentified or included for political purposes. That left only about 23% as unaffiliated journalists with no clear ties to militant groups.
But what about this new list?
Even without conducting a full deep-dive yet, some clear and disturbing patterns have already emerged. For starters, the list recycles over 100 names of individuals who were already confirmed to have terror affiliations in multiple reviews going back to January 2024, including Al Jazeera’s own journalists and the most famous one, the so-called “Palestinian journalist” from Palestine Chronicle Abdallah Aljamal, who was revealed almost exactly one year ago to be a full Hamas member—and not just a member, but a man who kept three Israeli hostages locked in his home for months before he was killed in a daring rescue operation by the IDF.
This isn’t a new revelation—it’s a repackaging of names long exposed as members or operatives of groups like Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other armed factions. Most striking is the fact that approximately 13% of those named were working for Al-Aqsa TV and Radio—Hamas’ official media wing. These aren’t “journalists caught in the crossfire.” They’re direct employees of a U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist organization, producing propaganda for Hamas’ political and military machine.
Then there’s the matter of basic fact-checking. Even at a glance, we can point to at least four individuals who were already removed from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) list after being confirmed as civilians, not journalists. These include:
Salma Mkhaimer
Ahmed Fatima
Mohamed Al Jaja
Mohamed Fayez Abu Matar
That’s not just sloppy—it’s willful misrepresentation.
It gets worse. The list includes at least one person who was later found to be alive, underscoring again how these numbers are thrown into circulation with minimal verification and maximal political utility.
Mustafa Ayyash, was allegedly founder and director of the Gaza-based media outlet Gaza Now, is a striking example of the phenomenon of “resurrected journalists.” Initially reported killed in an Israeli airstrike on his family home in Gaza in November 2023—an incident that led to widespread international condemnation—Ayyash was later found to be alive and active. However, his activities drew further scrutiny when, in March 2024, the U.S. and U.K. imposed sanctions on him and his media organization, accusing them of supporting Hamas through fundraising efforts and media promotion. The following month, Austrian authorities arrested Ayyash in Vienna, seizing his electronic devices and shutting down his media platforms, including a Telegram channel with over 1.8 million followers, they have a new Telegram channel with over 200,000 subscribers. Interestingly, they “memorialize a one year anniversary of their “dead”/arrested founder.
They continue to have X accounts. In their Arabic one, they celebrated the terror attack in Boulder, Colorado. Maybe it’s time for Elon Musk to shut the accounts down? They are a sanctioned organization by the United States.
From the entire Al Jazeera list of "dead" journalists, Mustafa Ayyash case reveals something scary: How many are not actually dead and instead escaped to places in the West? Mustafa Ayyash was arrested, but how many were not? Can we guarantee all 231 are dead? Of course not, and we have one clear case to prove it.
And conspicuously and most revealing part, what’s missing from the list is just as telling as what’s included. For example, Shatha Al-Sabbagh, a Palestinian journalist, was tragically killed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militias during internal clashes with Palestinian Authority security forces in the Jenin refugee camp. Al Jazeera, unsurprisingly, makes no mention of her—because her death was inconvenient for their narrative and Hamas propaganda.
It’s time to stop treating these lists as untouchable sources of truth. They are political weapons, designed not to protect press freedom but to shield Hamas from scrutiny and paint Israel in the worst possible light. The list mixes terrorists, propaganda agents, civilians, alive. This is not truth, the list is pure fiction.
The more these lists are scrutinized, the clearer it becomes: they’re not about journalism. They’re about narrative warfare.
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